


I've Got You Brother

by brilliantbanshee



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: BTHB, Bad Things Happen Bingo, Bilingual Lance (Voltron), Gen, Hunk beats lance to the self-sacrificing punch, Hurt Hunk (Voltron), Hurt Shiro (Voltron), I threw some bad spanish in, Implied/Referenced Torture, Protective Hunk (Voltron), Requested Prompt, Team as Family, Worried Lance (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-28
Updated: 2019-06-28
Packaged: 2020-05-28 14:21:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19395934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brilliantbanshee/pseuds/brilliantbanshee
Summary: Lance glared at the militia leader; his gaze steely, and Hunk instantly knew what was about to happen. But he wasn’t going to let it happen – not this time.“Wait,” he interrupted before anyone else could speak, “take me. I’ll go with you willingly, and you’ll let everyone else go.”He could feel the looks of horror from his team, especially Lance, but he refused to acknowledge them. He was going to make the sacrifice play this time, and his best friend was just going to have to deal with it.Or,Hunk sacrifices himself in a hostage situation to prevent Lance from doing the same. He finds out it’s not a lot of fun. Bad things happen.





	I've Got You Brother

**Author's Note:**

> I'm back with more bad things happen bingo because occasionally I do finish things!
> 
> This one was requested by an anon on tumblr who was very specific and I tried my best to meet their request. The gist of it is a hostage situation with Hunk and Lance in which Hunk offers himself up as hostage to save Lance and to prevent him from being the martyr for once. Which I have to say, was really intriguing and I really enjoyed writing it. 
> 
> For full details on the prompt and to request your own, check out my tumblr: https://brillliantbanshee.tumblr.com (link is in the nav bar)

So they had been ambushed, which was not a great start to the day in Hunk’s opinion.

Team Voltron had just been minding their own business, heading back to earth, when the paladins and Shiro decided to take a supply stop on a nearby planet with a hospitable atmosphere.

Then they learned that the atmosphere was the only thing about this planet that was hospitable.

Apparently, there was a power struggle happening on this planet between the two ruling classes that involved militias and guerilla tactics; which is how the team had ended up surrounded on all sides in the middle of the jungle on a strange planet by heavily armed militia members. Apparently, they couldn’t even take a leisurely stroll anymore without being attacked.

Unfortunately for them, these militia guys were _good_. Even Keith with his freaky Galra spidey-senses hadn’t heard them in the jungle growth until it was too late. There hadn’t even been time to draw their bayards before they had each had a blaster trained on them. So they’d had no choice but to comply; as evident by their bayards laying in a pile in the shade of a nearby tree.

Which led them to where there were now: on their knees, guns to their heads as the leaders discussed what to do with their new very valuable prisoners. Hunk wasn’t sure about the others, but he didn’t have a good feeling about this.

Finally, the tallest of the militiamen turned his attention to them. “So,” he said in a booming voice, “Voltron finally decided to show up. You took your sweet time.”

Hunk bit back a scoff. This “where have you been for the past three phobes” shit was getting _really_ old. Especially because no one ever believed them, even though they were telling the truth.

Shiro tried to speak, likely to launch into their standard explanation, but he was cut off by a blaster hilt colliding with the back of his skull. He crumpled to the ground with a small sound of surprise.

“Shiro!” Keith exclaimed, making to jump to his feet. The man behind him cocked his blaster threateningly.

“Keith, don’t!” Lance said sharply. The uncharacteristic seriousness of his voice froze Keith instantly. He stopped struggling but leveled a glare that promised unending pain and suffering at the one who had hit Shiro. The leader chuckled.

“I was under the impression that this one,” he gestured to Keith, “was in charge, but perhaps all is not as it seems.” He tossed a snide look at Lance, who scowled back, before moving on. “Regardless, it seems the universe has does just fine without you. Things have even righted themselves here, with the righteous reigning victorious!”

There was a thundering cry from the men around them for several minutes before the leader raised his hands for quiet. “It would seem,” he continued in a conversational tone, “that you are no longer needed.”

This brought on more jeers from the crowd. The leader let them go for longer this time, looking at each of the paladins in turn, savoring their discomfort and anxiety.

“As luck would have it,” he continued after the jeering came to an end, “you happened to wander into my domain. I suppose that means it is up to me to end your miserable existence. Let’s start with the angry one, shall we?” 

With that he pulled a pistol from his belt and strode forwards towards Keith, leveling the pistol to his temple. “It’s only fitting that the leader is the first to go, is it not?” he said calmly, his thumb stretching to release the safety.

Hunk couldn’t process the scene in front of him. After all they had been through, they were going to die, and Hunk was going to have to watch Keith die in front of him. He can’t form any coherent thoughts beyond sheer panic and repetition of _no no no no no no no._

“Wait!”

Lance. Hunk was glad that someone else was functioning.

The leader sneered at him, “why should I?

“Because we could be valuable,” this came from Allura. His teammates never ceased to amaze him.

The leader scoffed, “Seven hostages are not valuable, they’re a liability. One that I will not be burdened with.”

He turned his attention back to Keith, who was staring him down without a hint of fear.

Hunk refused to believe that this was happening. There was no way that Keith was about to die right in front of them. He frantically glanced around at his other teammates, looking for any indication that any of them had a plan, had figured out a way out of this.

Instead, he saw his own horror mirror on the faces of the others. Everyone except Lance, that is.

Lance was glaring at the militia leader; his gaze steely, and Hunk instantly knew what was about to happen. But he wasn’t going to let it happen – not this time.

“Wait,” he interrupted before anyone else could speak, “take me. I’ll go with you willingly, and you’ll let everyone else go.”

He could feel the looks of horror from his team, especially Lance, but he refused to acknowledge them. He was going to make the sacrifice play this time, and his best friend was just going to have to deal with it.

The leader cocked his head towards Hunk, a genuine look of curiosity on his face. “How would that improve my situation at all?” he asked.

Hunk spoke quickly, a haphazard plan forming in his mind; “You said that seven hostages was a burden, but I’d wager that you are more than capable of handling one.”

The leader scoffed, “of course we could handle one, but what good would it do you to be our hostage when the rest of your team is dead? Though,” he broke off with a dark chuckle, it would seem that Voltron is not as altruistic as the stories say. Are you really willing to surrender to save your own life paladin?”

Hunk held his gaze, “No, I am willing to surrender myself to save my team. With me as your hostage, you have insurance. The rest of the team will leave without a fight with me under your control. Then, if at a later date you would like to have access to team Voltron, you have a pawn – a very valuable pawn. Besides, 1 paladin hostage has to be more useful than 7 dead paladins.”

The leader considered. Hunk kept his gaze trained on him, consciously ignoring the horrified and angry looks from his teammates.

After a silence that seemed to last for eternity, the leader finally spoke; “I accept your terms Yellow Paladin. You will stay willingly without struggle and the rest of your team may go – without their weapons, of course.”

With that he gestured and two of the men stepped from the sidelines and each grabbed one of Hunk’s arms. He was wrenched from his kneeling position and pulled towards the militia group. Cries of alarm and protest rose from the rest of the team as the watched him be pulled away.

“Silence!” The leader bellowed, “Your friend has made his choice. I must ask that your honor his wishes and abide by our terms. You are free to go. Do not darken our doorstep again, unless you are called upon.”

There were more protests as the rest of the team was also pulled from the ground and shoved towards the direction they had come from. All of their voices melded into one, full of worry and desperation. Lance’s voice alone stood out; his native Spanish cutting through the cacophony of English.

“No te preocupes hermano, te rescataré. Sin importar lo que. Te lo prometo!” he said firmly as he was pulled away.

Hunk had long since lost the reasonable handle he had had on the language from spending time with Lance’s family, but the steely determination in his voice made the message clear. The team would find a way out of this. Hunk would not be abandoned.

He allowed himself an internal sigh of relief, least his mask of confidence slip. He knew he was making the right choice, but he was _terrified_ – and he would be damned if they ever found out.

He settled for locking eyes with Lance as he was dragged away, attempting to project that sense of bravado to reassure his friend. But soon Lance was too far and Hunk could feel his confident mask slip away. He didn’t know what these militiamen had planned for him, but he was certain it wouldn’t be pleasant.

* * *

Icy water brought Hunk back to awareness. He tried to shy away from it but was limited by the chains holding him down. He frantically blinked the water from his swollen eyes and squinted up at his tormentors. He wasn’t sure if he had been sleeping or unconscious. He wasn’t sure if it was day or night or how long he had been in this room, chained to this table. Every moment was filled with pain and fear and pointless questions they didn’t even want the answers too. Each instant rolled into the next with no end in sight.

Hunk wished he were stronger.

Who had he been kidding, thinking he could handle this? He was the worst paladin – the weakest link. Any of the others would have probably broken out by now. They wouldn’t be sitting here, waiting for the pain; begging for it to stop.

If he were being completely honest with himself, he hadn’t thought that he was signing up for this. He had thought that it would be more of an imprisonment scenario, which while not appealing would have been manageable. It was just his luck really that this particular militia seemed to be solely made up of sadists.

Since his arrival, they had spent the days (weeks? months?) taking turns with the torture. He had been strapped to the table immediately upon his arrival and had not been moved once. There had been all sorts of tactics. So many that Hunk had begun to wonder if he was the case subject for some sort of torture/interrogation 101 class. Either that or these were truly the worst beings in the universe and they _enjoyed_ this. 

Sleep was fitful and often interrupted – if allowed at all (they apparently had sleep deprivation in their repertoire) – so Hunk took the chance to close his eyes and pray himself into unconsciousness whenever the opportunity arose. It was during one of these rare moments that the sounds of commotion down the corridor drifted into his cell. He squeezed his eyes shut tighter, will himself to forget it, for his body to take advantage of this respite and just fade into unconsciousness.

Previous experience had taught him that he was not that fortunate as long as he was here. The sound of the door swinging open wasn’t a surprise, but it didn’t bread dread either. He was too tired for that; resignation was all he could muster.

What did surprise him was the sharp intake of breath from the figure in the doorway. The following sob was enough of a departure from the norm for him to force his eyes open. When he directed his tired eyes to the door though, he was certain that he was hallucinating.

“Lance?” he croaked, and the vague blue figure sobbed again as it moved closer.

“Hunk, hermano, what did they do to you?” Lance asked tearfully as he set to work on the restraints.

“Little of this, little of that,” Hunk muttered weakly. Lance was here. But – Lance couldn’t be here. The others had to stay away to stay safe, Hunk had made his peace with that. 

Lance muttered under his breath in Spanish as he continued to fiddle with the restraints.

“ _Mierda_ ,” he said venomously as the restraint on his left hand tightened in response to his meddling, “Keith, get in here!”

And just like that Hunk’s hallucination morphed as a figure in red armor with a gore-soaked sword entered. _Keith_.

Keith hurtled through the door, “Lance, we need to—shit, Hunk?

“I can’t get these restraints off of him,” Lance said hurriedly, “they’re tightening as I try to undo them. Quick, see if your blade will cut through them so we can get the fuck out of the hellhole.”

Keith obliged at once and within a tic Hunk was free. He flexed his wrists slowly, the reality of the situation finally dawning on him. His team was here and he was leaving. They had come for him just as they said they would. Hunk couldn’t believe he had ever doubted them.

“Come on big guy,” Lance said with forced bravado, “let’s blow this popsicle stand. But first, we’ve gotta get you up so we can get a move on.”

Despite the tremendous care that both Lance and Keith took, every movement shot pain through Hunk’s entire frame. He clenched his teeth and tried not to let on—the other two had a hard enough job to do without worrying about jostling him on the way out.

As it turned out, their exit was simple. It seemed that the other two had done a thorough job of clearing their path on the way in, judging by the bodies strewn across the corridors.

In no time at all they were at the hangar and Keith was exiting Red after helping Lance get Hunk up the ramp. Then they were taking off.

Hunk couldn’t believe it – he was finally leaving. He had been so sure he would die on that planet, he wasn’t sure how to fathom such a change in fortune.

It wasn’t until they were surrounded by nothing but the vastness of space that Lance finally spoke.

“I’m so sorry Hunk,” he said softly, “I should’ve—it should’ve been me. I’m so, so sorry Hunk.”

“Lance—”

“And then it took us so long to get out of that godforsaken jungle and to the lions and make a plan, and that whole time—”

“Lance—”

“That whole time they were hurting you! I can’t believe—I am so, so sorry hermano.”

“Lance!” Hunk finally put all of the strength he had into his words, finally bringing his friend to heel.

“Lance,” he repeated more softly once he had his friend’s attention, “it’s not your fault.”

“I should have—”

“Should have what Lance? Let them take you instead? I know you were about to offer yourself out. I knew it then, that’s why I offered first.”

“But—”

“No buts, Lance. I knew you were about to try to sacrifice yourself—again. I just didn’t think I could stand to see you hurt again.”

There was silence for a few moments before Lance spoke again, “but now you’re hurt,” he said softly.

“I am,” Hunk agreed. There was absolutely no point in denying that this was the most pain he had been in his entire life. “But it was my turn. Besides, I’ll be okay because you saved me—just like you promised. ‘Sin importar lo que,’ remember?”

Hunk had had plenty of time to run through the words Lance had shouted at their separation. ‘No matter what,’ Lance had said and even in his darkest moment Hunk had always known that more than anything in the universe, this was true. Lance was his brother and his brother would do anything to rescue him.

Lance turned to Hunk with a sad smile that spoke volumes, “eres mi hermano, sin importar lo que.”

Hunk smiled back, “siempre.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thoughts? Questions? Comments? Concerns? Let me know in the comments!
> 
> If you'd like to request your own bthb prompt, come see me on tumblr! 
> 
> https://brillliantbanshee.tumblr.com/


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